Thursday, March 27, 2014

I received this 10 For Keeps Memory Kit from the team behind Singapore Memory Project and decided to capture some of my cherished Singapore-related memories using the included Instax camera. At first, I thought I'd just take photos of the items lying on the floor but since my kids were on their one-week school holiday, I decided to deploy my child labour.

This is my school tie clip. The tie it is on belongs to my son, who is also going to the same school as his old man did. I have had that tie clip for decades now, since Secondary 4, when I left the school at 16. It is hard to believe I have kept it for almost thirty years. Whenever I have to wear a tie (which is rare), I try to wear the clip. It isn't as fancy as the branded ones out there but it brings back memories of school days. That my boy is now part of the same school family makes it even more special.

Joy is holding on to a FujiFilm FinePix 40i digital camera. It was the first digital camera I even owned and cost me slightly more than a thousand dollars in the year 2000. I bought it just before my firstborn, Faith was born and all her early photos were taken with this camera. I told the wife the purchase was "for the baby". It helped to pass the Minister of Home Affair's scrutiny.

The 40i was an oddity because it could play MP3s AND take photos: a camera with headphones and a music remote control. It had 2.4 megapixels (my iPhone has more megapixels than this camera now) and used giant SmartMedia cards. The lens was equivalent to 36mm on a full frame camera and fixed (only digital zoom) but you know, I took many photos of Faith and printed them out at 3R and 4R and didn't think it lacked anything.

I know how Inception this is: I used an analogue camera to take an instant photo of a digital camera and scanned the instant photo of my digital camera for my blog.

The Fuji Finepix 40i doesn't work anymore but I still keep it because it was my firstborn camera for my firstborn child.

Isaac here is holding on to a photo of me, aged 1. I love collecting old black and white photos of my past and from this photo you can see the black sliding gate reminiscent of the old HDB flats in the early 70s. It also shows the exposed gas meter of the time. And also note that parents in the old days didn't really fuss over the hygiene of placing their baby on the floor of the common corridor.

Joy is holding on to a photo of her mother, aged 18. This was taken when I first started dating my wife, in her home, which was a three-room flat above her father's tailor shop. She was a sweetie then, and still one now. You can see where my daughters get their big "eyes like limpid pools" from. ("Your eyes are the pools of Heshbon by the gate of Bath Rabbim. -Song of Solomon 7:4)

Also note the old school sofa, the kind with the stretched black elastic bands below and square cushions on top.

When Joy saw the photo, she said, "Mommy is so pretty!"

Indeed she is.

Joy is carrying a cassette tape. This is a performance track for a song that the wife and I used to sing at our friend's weddings. A performance track is the song with just the music and sans vocals. The tape is high-end chromium dioxide (CrO2) tape, and is still in great shape, but I don't have a player at home that can play it anymore, since almost all my music is now digital and in the cloud.

When Joy saw it, she said, "Papa, is that a… TAPE?"

Yes, I told her. The song, I said, had to be played in a linear fashion and if you wanted to skip to the next song, you had to fast forward. This is an alien concept for my kids because they are used to being able to jump to any point in a song or a video. And another mind-blowing thing for them to learn: you took the tape out and flipped it around for songs on the B-side. Wait till I show them how we used to rewind a tape with a pencil to save battery life on a Walkman.

You can win your own Instax Memory Kit worth over $100 by sharing a meaningful memory or two in the comments* below by 2 April 2359h. The two best entries will win.

The Instax Memory Kit was a great way to document some of the memories I want to keep. It comes with an instant camera, 2 cartridges of instant film with 10 exposures each and a Memory Kit book that teaches you how to document your memories. There are even memory sheets in the kit that allows you to mail in your instant photos and describe your memories so that the Singapore Memory Project can archive them for future generations to enjoy.

By submitting your memories you will also stand a chance to have them featured at SMP’s Memory Showcase. Do come down to the showcase launching on the 11th of April at the National Library Building.

* Note that by submitting a comment you agree to let it be collected by the Singapore Memory Project team for archival and collection purposes, and may be used by the team as content feature.

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

This is my Faith, just back from a little grocery shopping trip with me. I took her along to send her younger brother to tuition, then decided to buy some things at the supermarket after that.

"Good girl, Faith, for helping Papa!" I said, pleased that she could hang on to the plastic bag of groceries I gave her. The autism and her low tone means she usually has trouble holding on to heavier items.

This is Faith seconds later, dashing off from the lift lobby, giggling. She does that sometimes, bolting away for no good reason. I think she finds it amusing to make me run after her. Needless to say, I ended up chasing after her to make sure she didn't run to the street. My radar and reflexes are very good and sharp but my sprinting isn't of Usain Bolt standard. I was winded by the time I caught her.

Being part of the 1 Million kg Blogger Challenge has made me acutely aware of how important it is to keep myself fit for my kids. Sure, losing weight is nice and all, but making sure my heart is strong and body reasonably fit, even as I enter my late forties, is even more important.

I've been adding more veggies into my daily meals and thinking of running or swimming more. Maybe trying some other exercise besides cycling. Varying the exercise routine a bit is probably good for the body. The human body adapts to a exercise routine very quickly and after a while you can plateau if you don't push other parts of the body.

Anyway, do sign up for the #1mkg Challenge yourself. It will be good for you to shed some kilos healthily and win some prizes (got car!). Use my link: http://bit.ly/N2U2vq.

Monday, March 24, 2014

And just like that, my firstborn turned 13, no fanfare, no parties, no sleepovers.

We bought her a cake that her youngest sister decorated, and sang her a loud birthday song in the car ride to church. I wandered the aisles of a department store later, deciding on what to buy her for her present. I have spent many years in the aisles meant for toddlers, looking at sensory toys that she should have outgrown more than a decade ago, if it wasn't for the autism.

Buying presents for my two younger ones is so much easier and less fraught with emotion.

We think Faith understands the concept of birthdays. She certainly understands the concept of cake (we have to hold her back from attacking her cake before we finish singing the song every year).

She shares the same birthday month as her mother, their birthdays are only a week apart, and together with our wedding anniversary, the month of March is always a rowdy month of celebrations.

A week after her birthday, during service, Faith suddenly reached out to me in the pews and touched my lips, as her speech therapist does with her, I suspect.

"Tooyoo, tooyoo," she vocalized.

I smiled at her quizzically. "Yes dear, tooyoo?"

I looked at the wife, and she shrugged too, not understanding what Faith meant.

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

When I grow up, I want to have Allan Wu's body. Is that guy fit or WHAT? You can see from this photo, even the zeros got thinner just standing behind him, frightened into skinniness.

This was at the 1 Million kg Challenge Launch event over the weekend at the Ngee Ann City forecourt. Under big white tents, people mingled and tried the various booths, and got free stuff (I heard much of the free stuff involved healthy food).

Miyagi and I wandered around the area, trying out the stations.

The first booth was obvious: Get ourselves signed up and weighed in at the machines. Miyagi entered his name and age and weight and all that stuff, and the machine killed itself.

I am kidding. The machine gave him his BMI and told him how many gazillion kilograms he had to lose before he hit "healthy".

I was there with him all the way, by his side… taunting him. But he was not fazed. He had the look of determination on his face, as you can see from this photo.

Next we checked out a cycling station, and a question and answer booth (got prizes to win one). The answer to this question is FALSE, you should NOT cut back on the amount of exercise you do, after you reach your ideal weight.

The TRX exercise station looked like a lot of fun. So we tried it out. I gave Miyagi "a hand".

As you can see, I was really giving my 110% when it was my turn.

Kidding aside, it has been a rather challenging start to my journey towards a healthier lifestyle. I had a wedding to attend over the weekend (yes the food was awesome) then a dinner at a friend's house that very same day. I consciously avoided the alcohol at the wedding (ok, I had one small glass of red wine but the rest was Chinese tea) and didn't even finish the whole wedding 10-course meal. And I didn't whack the cheese and crackers over dinner (I gave them to my wife).

I've also been getting more sleep. I am zonked before midnight and up by 7am, which is unheard of for me, as I am a night person. But new duties (sending Faith to school) meant an adjustment to my lifestyle. So I now have my meals at proper hours due to this change in timing. Not too bad. No more 11pm meals for me.

Also cut were my portions of rice and noodles. Those carbs can be hard to shed once they are inside. And I took my chicken rice today skinless (the chicken, not me).

Anyways, there is still time for YOU to sign up for the 1 Million kg Challenge, using my referral link: http://bit.ly/1fRoHsF

Remember what is at stake here: Making sure I win so that Miyagi does YOGA. You know you want to see him stretch like Plastic Man. Sign up now!

Thursday, March 13, 2014

In other news, via TODAY: "The Malaysian police have denied doctoring photos of flight MH370 passengers with stolen passports - saying one man’s legs were spliced over the other’s in a photocopying error."

Please lah, how can they be Photoshop expert if they not even Photostat expert?

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

I could not resist these shoes when I walked into the New Balance Factory Outlet. I already own an orange pair of NB Minimus trail shoes, and love the lightweight, comfort and fit, so when I saw these on sale, I had to get other colours.

My wife asked if I was taking up running. I muttered something and pretended I didn't hear it. But it looks like there is no escape from regular exercise, since I already have the shoes for it (more than three pairs, in fact).

At around the same time I got my new kicks, I suffered a pretty bad case of gastritis. Maybe it was work stress, or maybe it was the irregular meals, or maybe it was having to wake up early in the morning for a new family routine, but my tummy decided to protest. And boy, did it protesteth much.

My family doctor said my stomach is not fully healed from the Helicobacter pylori attack I had some months ago (I even needed a colonoscopy for it). She gave me some meds and told me I needed to change some of my eating habits. Shucks, but I love my spicy food and the little bits of crunchy lard in my bak chor mee leh.

Just as well, HPB started the 1 Million kg Challenge (www.millionkg.sg) to encourage Singapore to lose 1 million kilograms collectively through healthy food choices and exercise. And to make it more interesting, DanielFoodDiary, Mr Miyagi and I will be competing in the HPB #1mkg Blogger Challenge, to see how many people we can get to sign up*. Use my referral link here: http://bit.ly/1nfuDQc or click on the badge at my sidebar to sign up on the 1MKGC portal and I will get the referral points.

Why help me get referrals, you ask? Because the loser of this Blogger Challenge will need to do a forfeit. And who doesn't want to see Mr Miyagi don spandex and do some hot yoga, right? I will even help him choose the spandex (I think something neon pink will be very fetching on Mr Miyagi's finely sculpted body).

Our mentor is Dr Leslie Tay, better known as Mr ieatishootipost. He will give us great tips on how to be healthy while telling us about the wonderful chendol he just had. It is a twisted move on HPB's part, methinks.

I hope to shed some of the kilograms I gained when I turned 40 (I call it the Eldershield Curse) and gain some energy back too. I have a lot more on my plate these days and it doesn't hurt to be fitter and more awake.

The #1mkg Blogger Challenge will last from 12th March to 30th March, so what are you waiting for? Click on my referral link and sign up for the 1 Million kg Challenge now! Remember: Miyagi in tights doing hot yoga!

*Minimum system requirements: participants must be between 18 and 64 years old, and have an existing BMI of between 18.5 to 37.4

Monday, March 10, 2014

This is Faith coming back from special school in her new school bus routine, unaccompanied. Her driver is Ah Guan, and we started this arrangement when my mom couldn't pick her up from school at midday for the time being.

It isn't her first time on the school bus, but back when she was much younger, my late father accompanied her on the school bus. Then after we stopped the school bus rides, she was driven to and from school.

She seemed to be quite comfortable sitting there in the front seat. I think she is the first kid to be dropped off.

I stayed home to catch her coming home that day. Just wanted to see that all was well, I guess.